Rufina and Secunda

The Holy Martyrs Rufina and Secunda were two virgin sisters of Rome who suffered in 257, in the persecution of Valerian. According to their legendary Acts they were the daughters of a Roman senator, Asterius. Their betrothed, Armentarius and Verinus, were Christians but renounced the faith when the persecution began. Rufina and Secunda fled to Etruria, but were captured and brought before a prefect, who tortured them and then beheaded them. Their bodies were buried on the Via Aurelia, and the church of Santa Rufina e Secunda in Rome was dedicated to them.

Historically, nothing is really known of them but their names and the place of their burial, on the Via Aurelia. Their feast was inserted into the Roman calendar in the twelfth century, when their relics were transferred to the Lateran Basilica. They are commemorated on 10 July, as saints of the West before the Great Schism (saints of the undivided Church), by the New Calendar.